I 



■^' 



fcf PEACH YELLOWS. 



A WARNING TO FRUIT GROWERS-DANGER OF INTRODUC- 
TION INTO CALIFORNIA-WARNING TO INTENDING 
PURCHASERS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS. 



0' /6s^o 



By B. M. LELONG, 
Secretary of the State Board of Horticulture. 



EX OFFICIO CHIEF HORTICULTURAL OFFICER. 




I 



SACRAMENTO: 

3TATE OFFICE, ::::::: A. J. JOHNSTON, supt. state printing. 

1891. 



PEACH YELLOWS. 



A WARNING TO FRUIT GROWERS-DANGER OF INTRODUC- 
TION INTO CALIFORNIA-WARNING TO INTENDING 
PURCHASERS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS. 



By b. m: leloxg, 

Secretary of the State Board of Horticulture. 



^0 UAj^ ^, 



.Ul_. 



EX OFFICIO CHIEF HORTICULTURAL OFFICER. 




SACRAMENTO: 
STATE OFFICE, ::::::: A. J. Johnston, supt. state printing. 

1891. 



-^fc^*^ 






W-OK, . 



STATE BOARD OF HORTICULTURE. 



OFFICERS AND MEMBERS. 

ELLWOOD COOPER, President Santa Barbara, 

Commissioner for tlie Los Angeles District. 

L. ^y. BUCK, Vice-President Vacaville, 

Commissioner for the Napa District. 

S. RUXYOX, Treasurer Conrtland, 

Commissioner for the Sacramento District. 

.T. L. MOSHER, Auditor.... San Francisco, 

Commissioner for the State at Large. 

FRANK A. KIMBALL ._. National City, 

Commissioner for the State at Large. 

A. F. WHITE ..-.Santa Rosa, 

Commissioner for tlie Sonoma District. 

FRED. C. MILES _. Penryn, 

Commissioner for the El Dorado District. 

I. H. THOMAS Yisalia, 

Commissioner for tlie San Joaquin District. 

A. BLOCK Santa Clara, 

Commissioner for the San Francisco District. 

B. M. LELONG, Secretary Ex officio Chief Horticultural Officer. 

ALEXANDER CRAW Clerk of the Publishing and Quarantine Bureau. 

ELLA F. HALLAHAN Clerk. 

Office of the lioard: 
No. 220 Sutter Street, Sax Francisco. 



A WARNING TO FRUIT GROWERS. 



"Whereas, "We are informed that some nurserjrmen, through the scar- 
city of peach stocks for budding prunes, have contracted for large lots 
of eastern peach stock for budding purposes for next season's delivery ; 
and "Whereas, there is great danger of introducing into this State the "Zel- 
lo'ws, a deadly disease of the peach, on said roots, and on peach trees 
imported from the Eastern States ; and -while they may not have the 
disease in the localities -where they get this stock, but we having no 
guarantee that the eastern growers may not get trees grovm in infested 
sections to supply the California demand ; therefore, be it 

Resolved, That -we warn intending purchasers of the danger of getting 
trees infected with the Yellows and other tree diseases and pests not 
now in this State ; and be it further 

Resolved, That we call the attention of all the Boards of County Hor- 
ticultural Commissioners and Quarantine Guardians throughout the 
State to this danger, and urge the rigid enforcement of the law in all 
such cases. 

Adopted at a meeting of the Board, July 9, 1891. 



PEACH YELLOWS. 



By B. M. Lelong, Secretary of the State Board of Horticulture, and Ex Officio Chief 

Horticultural Officer. 



EASTERN PEACH TREES. 

The future of successful fruit growing in California depends in pre- 
venting the various fruit tree diseases so prevalent throughout many of 
the Eastern States from being introduced into this State. Importing 
trees from the East, especially from States -where the Yellows has 
appeared, is very dangerous, and every person interested in the future 
of fruit growing in this State ought to discourage the practice in every 
way. There is no certainty that nurserj'-men in the East do not run 
short of nursery stock and are supplied from other States to fill orders 
from this coast. Also, there is no guarantee that dealers do not buy 
cheap trees from suspected districts and forward them as coming from 
perfectly clean localities. To be safe no person should buy imported 
trees, unless known to have come from localities absolutely free from 
the Yellows. The Yellows is spreading throughout the East with great 
rapidity and is most alarming, threatening the destruction of the peach 
industry everywhere. The disease now prevails from Massachusetts to 
Virginia, and westward to the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River. 
The peach-growing sections of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, 
New Jersey, Ohio, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Kentuck3^ Indiana, 
Illinois, Michigan, Arkansas, Pennsylvania, and North Texas are suffer- 
ing from its ravages, and so far nothing can stop its destructive course; 
it is a most singular and obscure disease everywhere. 

I could point out the damage done by this destructive agent in all 
the districts where it has appeared, but believe it would only be time 
wasted. As illustrating, one will apply, to a certain extent, to all the 
rest; I therefore wall only mention New Castle County, Delaware. This 
county had always been considered the largest peach-growing region of 
the East, and in 1879 the acreage devoted to the culture of the peach 
in that county was estimated at eleven thousand six hundred acres, but 
since that time has been steadily on the decline, caused by the Yellows. 
In 1888 no orchards of any consequence were found between Middle- 
town and McDonough, which formerly was so thickly planted. Large 
districts, once almost entirely devoted to peach orchards, are noAV bare 
and do not contain a single tree. It was estimated that there were one 
million seven hundred and fifty thousand trees in New Castle County 
in 1875, and six hundred and thirty -two thousand four hundred and 
twenty-seven baskets of peaches were shipped that same year. New 
Castle and Middletown are no longer the center of the peach region, and 
the peaches now shipped from there are hardly taken into account. 
Speaking of Delaware City and Middletown, Dr. Smith says: "The 
' glory and profit ' of peach growing have departed, and under the same 



— 6 — 

blighting influence." The damage caused by Yellows extends to all the 
other counties in Delaware, and also in the States above mentioned in 
no less destructive form. 

In June, 1890, I visited the principal peach-growing regions of the 
East, and especially those of Delaware, Maryland, and New Jersey. The 
great number of orchards that had been rooted out, on account of being 
infected by the Yellows, was really aj^palling. Vacant fields could be 
seen everywhere (now principally devoted to cereals) that once were 
peach orchards. 

The illustrations hereto appended, reproduced from the report (1888) 
of Dr. Erwin F. Smith, of the Division of Vegetable Pathology, 
show its destructive power in devastation and ruin of the peach-growing 
sections of Maryland and Delaware. Large orchards that once were 
very productive have been swept out of existence by the scourge. Thou- 
sands of acres have been taken out and many more will be uprooted 
and burned. The scourge is also doing havoc in many sections where, 
previous to 1888, it was not known to exist. Such remnants of orchards 
are seen everywhere, and the stumps remain only as evidence of its 
destructive work. 

The newspapers of the East have recently announced that an English 
syndicate has secured an option for the purchasing of a number of the 
larger nurseries in western New York, and also that the project con- 
templates the absorption of some of the best known nurseries of 
Rochester, Geneva, and Lockport, besides others, and to place on sale 
their trees wherever they can. It is a scheme to buy and sell, no matter 
from where or to whom. 

That there is danger of introducing the disease on nursery trees cannot 
be doubted, from the fact that in the East it has been taken from one 
locality to another in this way, the trees developing the disease the same 
season after planting. 

The first cases of Yellows that have been found in new districts are 
generally, if not always, in young trees imported from infected localities. 
"Yellows is a disease of haste and waste; the fruit ripens too soon, 
the buds push too soon, assimilation is disturbed, the stored starch and 
other food materials are wasted by excessive and unnatural growth, and 
the entire vitality of the tree is exhausted in the course of two or three 
seasons." 

This State is thus far free from the disease, and the introduction of all 
trees from the Eastern States should be prohibited by stringent legis- 
lative enactments and county ordinances. 

From time to time we have warned fruit growers of the danger of 
introducing dangerous insect pests and diseases not known in this State, 
yet strange as it may appear, and in the face of all these warnings, 
many persons are eager to buy trees grown outside of the State, prin- 
cipally on account of their cheapness. There are man}' large land 
owners and real estate speculators in the State interested only in the 
speculative value of their land. They do not care for the fruit indus- 
try, and will plant those trees which are cheapest, so as to have a large 
acreage of planted trees. These lands are sold at great profit, and 
dangerous pests and diseases are liable to be thus introduced on inferior 
and infected imported trees. 

Recently a cargo of three hundred and twenty-five thousand orange 
trees arrived from Tahiti, and no less than nine different kinds of injuri- 



ous insects were found upon them, and among that number two that 
were very dangerous and entirely unknown to this coast. One of these 
proved very hard to exterminate, surviving five different treatments with 
hydrocyanic acid gas — three times with a double dose — and at one time 
a triple amount of the chemicals was used. 

EASTERN PEACH YELLOWS. 

This is a constitutional disease of the peach and nectarine prevalent 
throughout many of the Eastern States where the peach is grown, and 
peculiar to America as far as known. It has also been observed on the 
almond and apricot. 

" Within a few years after it was described, 'Yellows' appeared in all 
the Atlantic Coast States north of Virginia, and caused great loss, 
destroying in a few decades hundreds of orchards and thousands of trees 
in Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, and Connecticut, 
and putting an entire stop to peach growing in many sections."* 

Dr. Erwin F. Smith, the Special Agent of the Department of Agri- 
culture, to whom the investigation of the Yellows has been especially 
assigned for several years, in 1888 reported that the disease had ex- 
tended from Maine to Georgia, and westward to Lake Michigan and the 
Mississippi River, and that in recent years it appeared in Michigan, 
Illinois, and Georgia, and has not disappeared from any of its former 
strongholds. " In recent years the disease has been no less destructive 
than formerly. Thousands of young and thrifty trees have been 
destroyed by it, and peach growing has been abandoned in several 
parts of the country, where formerly there were many large and profit- 
able orchards; e. g., at Saint Joseph, in Berrien County, Michigan; at 
Middletown, in New Castle County, Delaware; near Niagara River, in 
New York and Ontario, and along the bay shore in Harford County, 
Maryland. The disease now prevails disastrously on the Chesapeake 
and Delaware peninsula, in the most productive peach region of the 
continent. On this peninsula it is confined principally to the counties 
of Cecil and Kent, in Maryland, and of New Castle and Kent, in Dela- 
ware, but is extending into other regions formerly free. The disease is 
also now prevalent in Cumberland, Morris, and Hunterdon Counties, in 
New Jersey, and in other parts of the United States. It is everywhere 
the same obscure, destructive malady. "f 

Thus far mycologists have failed to ascribe the cause of the Yellows. 
It has, however, been attributed to various causes, such as severe freez- 
ing in winter, excessive rainfall, precipitation, parasites, etc.; but these 
causes have been carefully looked into and the Yellows found thriving 
under all such conditions. All the combined efforts of the experts 
employed have not yet detected the cause of the malady, nor effected a 
cure in a single instance. 

" It has been attributed to impoverishment of the soil, especially to a 
deficiency of lime, potash, and phosphoric acid; but it now occurs on 
fertile soil, both virgin and highly improved, in as destructive a form 
as was ever observed in the most impoverished district, and is now 

* Report of Erwin F. Smith on the Yellows, Bulletin No. 9, Division of Vegetable Path- 
ology, Washington, 1888. 

t Since the above report was made the Yellows has spread, and also has appeared in 
many new districts, as is shown in the accompanying map. 



— 8 — 

absent from certain poor sandy regions deficient in the elements neces- 
sary to the growth of vegetation."* 

The progress of the Yellows is somewhat slow in infected trees. It 
does not cause the immediate falling or blasting of the flowers or fruit, 
but is a serious menace to peach culture wherever it abounds. The 
trees may appear healthy in the spring of the year, and yet be affected. 

SYMPTOMS. 

Dr. Smith, on page 93 of his reportf (1888) upon Yellows, gives the 
following digest of sym^Dtoms of the disease: 

1. Prematurely ripe, red-si:)otted fruit. 

2. Developmeiit, upon the trunk and branches which bear, or liave borne, the diseased 
peaches, of secondary or summer shoots, often in great numbers, and always dwarfed and 
feeble in appearance. 

3. A very marked tendency of the buds on these secondary shoots to develop the same 
season, forming sometimes in this way within a few months secondary, tertiary, quartan, 
and quintan branches. 

4. The appearance of the disease the next spring in the entire growth of the tree, or at 
least of the diseased parts, the shoot-axes being shortened and the foliage dwarfed and 
sickly, of a j^ellowish or reddish-brown color, and with a greater or less tendency to curl 
from end to end, and to roll side wise, so that the lower surface becomes the convex outer 
surface. Sometimes, however, the disease affects the terminal shoots the same autumn, 
causing the winter buds to develop either before or after the leaves have fallen. 

5. Aslow progress of the disease from limb to limb, so that in one or two years, or at 
most three years, tlie whole tree is involved. 

6. Coordiiiate with the progress of tlie disease from part to part, a marked diminution 
of the vitality of the tree, ending in death. 

These are symptoms characteristic of Peach Yellows, and tliey seem to nie quite as 
definite as those of any specific disease. If Peach Yellows, as I have seen it and defined 
it, is not a specific disease, due to some constant cause or causes, then neither is glanders 
nor anthrax nor measles nor smallpox. 

PEACH ROSETTE. 

This is also an eastern disease affecting the peach, and is very similar 
to the Yellows and equally as deadly, but is not so general in its attacks. 
Thus far it has only appeared in two districts, as indicated on the accom- 
panying map. 

CORRESPONDENCE WITH REGARD TO THE PEACH YELLOWS IN THE EASTERN 

STATES. 

Letter of Inquiry. 

On August 7, 1891, I addressed a letter to the Division of Vegetable 
Pathology at Washington, and also to the various Agricultural Experi- 
ment Stations in the States Avhere the peach is grown, asking for 
information upon the following points, viz.: 

First — The extent of the Yellows; the district affected; the damage. 

Second — Whether or not it would be safe to import trees from districts 
in States where the Yellows is known to exist, even if away from infected 
localities. 

Third — The danger, if any, of introducing the Yellows on pits grown 
in infected districts, or on cions taken from one place to another. 

* Report of Erwin F. Smith on tlic Yellows, Bulletin No. 9, Division of Vegetable Pathol- 
ogy, Washington, 1888. 

t Bulletin No. 9, Division of Vegetable PathoUigy, "Washington. 



— 9 — 

Answers. 
The following reiDlies have been received: 

United States Department of Agriculture,) 

Division of Vegetable Pathology, V 

Washington, August 24, 1891. ) 

Mr. B. M. Lelong, Slate Board of Horticulture, San Francisco, Cal.: 
Dear Sir: In response to your letter of August 6, 1891: 

1. Peach Yellows now prevails from Massachusetts to Virginia, and westward over most 
of this area to the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River. It is most prevalent and 
destructive in the Atlantic Coast States. It occurs in nearly all parts of the following 
States: Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Ohio. It is also preva- 
lent in parts of the following States: Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Kentuckv, Indiana, 
Illinois, Michigan, Arkansas, and North Texas. Yellows is now veiy destructive in the 
middle and northern part of Delaware and Maryland, and in nearly all of Pennsyl- 
vania and New Jersey. 

2. If Yellows exists in some parts of a State, but not at all in others, I should consider 
it safe to import from the non-infected regions; («) provided they are not verv close to 
the infected regions, and (6) provided it can be shown that buds as well as stocks came 
from healthy localities. 

3. While not being able to speak positively in tlie matter of pits, I should regard it as 
unsafe to get pits from infected districts. 

4. In reference to cions, or buds, it is verrj unaafe to import them from infected districts. 
Another very destructive contagious disease, recently described by Dr. Smith, of this 

Division, as Peach Rosette, occurs in middle North Georgia, and in Kansas at Manhattan. 
By this mail I send you Bulletin No. 9, containing a miip of United States showing 
the present distribution of Yellows. The blue marks* indicate areas now known to be 
infected, but portions of which were supposed to be free at the time the map was made. 
It is quite possible that additions will be made to this area in the course of another year. 
Very respectfuUv, 

B. F. GALLOWAY, 

Chief of Division. 

The Pennsylvania State College Agkicultukal Experiment Station,) 
State College, Centre Co., Pa., August 25, 1891. j 

3Ir. B. M. Lelong, Secrelarij State Board of Horticulture, San Francisco, Cal.: 

Dear Sir : In reply to your communication of the seventh instant. The Peach Yellows 
exists over the entire State of Pennsylvania, there being no locality that enjoys entii'e 
freedom from the disease. Peach culture is being gradually abandoned here, but occa- 
sionally an inexperienced or young orchardist will plant' extensively and fight the 
"Yellows" until he loses patience. The knowledge ot this disease is so very vague that 
your question concerning its propagation can be answered only with a caution, to wit: 
Do not import trees or pits from infected regions. The spread of the disease in the East is 
frequently charged to the disregard of such advice. I hope you will urge as strong 
measures against its introduction into your State as some Eastern States have inaugu- 
rated against its existence here. 

It is true that the "Yellows" does not appear until the trees begin to blossom, and 
therefore that the cause is in the region and not the tree, but until this is proved the best 
advice seems to me to doubly guard against its advent. 
Very truly", 

GEO. C. BUTZ, 

Horticulturist. 

Michigan Agricultural College,] 

Department of Horticulture and Landscape Gardening, I 

Agricultural College Post Office, ( 

Ingham County, Michigan, August 18, 1891. J 

3Ir. B. M. Lelong, San Francisco, Cal.: 

Dear Sir: Your letter to Director Clute has been referred to me. Some twenty-five 
years ago the "Yellows" appeared in the peach orchards of Berrien Count}-, and thou- 
sands of acres of bearing trees were destroyed. Nothing was done to prevent it. The 
disease gradually spread to Van Buren and Allegan Counties, but the orchardists found 
that its ravages could be checked by the prompt removal of diseased trees. This has 
been practiced for fifteen years with comparatively little loss. 

It has done but little injury in other sections. Pits from premature fruit (a sign of 

* Indicated by dots and strokes. See legend in map. 



— 10 — 

Yellows) will not germinate, and buds from trees in which the Yellows has manifested 
itself will not develop into trees of salable size. 

The real cause of Yellows has not been ascertained, but probably it is some micro- 
organism. There are undoubtedly various inducing causes, such as droughts, cold, over- 
bearing, lack of food, borers and other insects; and if pits or cions are taken from trees 
weakened by any of these, they will of course be more liable to the disease than if from 
healthy tree's, while if they come from trees in the early stages of the disease, they will 
be subject to attack unless the conditions are radically changed. 

1 should of course prefer trees from States where Yellows is unknown, but should 
consider the risk comparatively slight if obtained from reliable nurserymen in localities 
awaj' from infected districts, or where Yellows laws are rigidly enforced. 
Yours very truly, 

L. R. TAFT. 



North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, I 

Raleigh, N. C., August 24, 1891. f 
B. M. Lelong, Esq. : 

Dear Sir: Yours of August seventh at hand. The disease known as Yellows has 
never been seen in North Carolina. 1 have never seen it farther south than the northern 
part of Kent and Queen Ann Counties in Maryland, and do not believe it exists in either 
Virginia or North Carolina. 

The origin of the Yellows is still obscure. That there is a diseased condition, and that 
this condition is always accompanied by certain micro-organisms, is true, but' we have 
never been able to produce the disease by inoculation with these microbes. Professor 
Burrill, of Illinois University, last year showed me a tree in their grounds, brought from 
New Jersey, half dead with the disease. This tree on the black prairie soil of Illinois 
was rapidly taking on a renewed growth. In Kent County, Maryland, this summer, I 
noticed orchards on stony and fertile land that were well cared for and no signs of Yel- 
lows, and others on exhausted soil nearly gone with it. If not entirely due to the 
exhaustion of the soil of necessary elements, there is no doubt that trees in such soil are 
more liable to it. There will be no danger in getting stock and seed from North Carolina. 
Yours truly, 

W. F. MASSEY. 



University of Wisconsin, Agricultural Experiment Station, [ 

Madison, Wis., August 22, 1891. i 

3Tr. B. M. Lelong, Secretary California State Board of Horticulture, San Francisco: 

Dear Sir: I am requested by .Professor Henry to reply to your letter of the sixth. 

Very few peach trees are grown in this State, our winters being too severe. I have 
never heard of a case of Yellows in Wisconsin. 

In reply to your other questions, I must be wholly guided by the opinion of Dr. Erwin 
F. Smith, as expressed in his "Preliminary Report," which you have doubtless read. He 
says (p. 148): " In the present state of our knowledge, it is certainly wisdom to procure 
pits from uninfested districts." As to the piossibility of the disease being communicated 
by buds, the evidence cited by him on pp. 149-155 is certainlj' strong enough to deter one 
who fears the Yellows from procuring buds from any source not fully believed to be free 
from infection. 

Dr. Smith has been energetically studying the Yellows for three years since the publi- 
cation of the report cited. His opinion in regard to the questions you ask would be 
worth much more than mine. You can address him, if you desire", at Washington, 
D. C, care Department of Agriculture. 
Very trul\' yours, 

E. S. GOFF, 

Horticulturist. 



Kentucky Agricultural Experiment Station,! 
Division of Entomology and Botany, ' 
Lexington, Ky., August 20, 1891. \ 
Mr. B. M. Lelong : 

Dear Sir: Yours of August sixth to Professor Scovell has been referred to me for 
answer. I have delayed replying for a few days in order to make a few inquiries of local 
fi'uit growers concerning the occurrence of Peach Yellows here. I have not myself seen 
a single instance of the disease in Kentucky, and thus far have found no one else wlio 
has observed it. The disease is said to occur in the State, but must be very rare. 1 will 
inquire fiu'ther, and write you again. 

'Ihe exact nature of Peach Yellows has not been satisfactorily determined, but from 
the most exluuistive studies tints iar made it is a communicable bacterial disease, and in 
this case the danger of introducing it by means of pits or cions from infected districts 
would certainly be very great. Pits or" cions from localities which are free from the 



— 11 — 

disease would be less likely to convey the infection, and the more remote such localities 
are from infected trees the less will l)e the danger. 
Yours truly, 

H. GARMAN, 
Entomologist and Botanist. 



Kentucky Agricultural Experiment Station,') 
Division of Entomology and Botany, J- 
Lexington, Ky., September 7, 1891. ) 
Mr. B. M. Belong: 

Dear Sir: Since my letter of August twentieth, on Peach Yellows, was sent to you, I 
have written to several of our foremost fruit growers asking about their experience with 
Yellows in the State; and while some of them have seen trees affected with the disease, 
none report it as occurring in their neighborhood now, and all regard it as not a common 
affection of peach trees in Kentucky. 
Yours truly, 

H. GARMAN, 
Entomologist and Botanist. 



Maine State College and Agricultural Experiment Station,) 

Orono, Me., August 20, 1891. )" 
Mr. B. M. Belong, San Francisco, Cal.: 

Dear Sir: Yours of the sixth instant to Professor Jordan is handed me for reply. 

So far as I am aware the true Peach Yellows, as known in Michigan, New York, and 
Delaware, has not made its appearance in Maine. Very few peaches are grown in this 
State. 

In my opinion it would be safe to import trees from uninfected localities in any State. 

There would doubtless be as much danger in taking cions from any given locality as 
in taking trees from tlie same place. There seems to be little doubt that the disease may 
be communicated by inoculation. 
Truly yours, 

AV. M. M UN SON. 



West Virginia University' Agricultural Experiment Station,* 
MoRGANTOWN, W. Va., August 17, 1891. (" 

Mr. B. M. Belong, State Board of Horticulture, San Francisco, Cal.: 

Dear Sir: From authentic information and personal observation, I can only report 
the Yellows from one location in this State, that being in the far northeastern section, 
and very limited at that. My opinion is that it would'be safer to have nothing whatso- 
ever to do with the pits, cions, or trees from a district known to be infested with this 
disease. 

Regretting that I can give you no further West Virginia experience uj^on this subject, 
I remain. 

Yours sincerelv, 

C. F. MIBLSPAUGH, 
Botanist and Horticulturist. 



Agricultural Experiment Station of the ) 

A. & M. College of Alabama, > 

Auburn, Ala., August 15, 1891. ) 

Mr. B. M. Belong, Secretary, etc., San Francisco, Cal.: 

Dear Sir: Referring to yours of the sixth, which awaited mj' return last night, I have 
found Yellows in only one locality in this State, viz., three miles north of Opelika, in 
this (Bee) county. It made its appearance there upon trees purchased from northern 
nursei'ies. If sufflcientlj' removed from infected localities, 1 think there will be no 
danger from trees. 1 heard of a case of Yellows in the nursery row this summer, which 
points to introduction through the pits. Its transmission by cions and buds has been 
very plainlj^ demonstrated. 

Verv respectfullv yours, 

J. S. NEWMAN, 

Director. 



— 12 — 

Mississippi Ageicultueal Expeeiment Station,) 
Ageicultueal College, Mississippi, August 24, 1891. f 

Mr. B. M. Lelong, Secretary: 

Deae Sie: Yours of August seventh, making inquiries about Peach Yellows, is at 
hand. I am confident that the disease does not exist in Mississi^^pi, as I am quite famil- 
iar with its work, and have had opportunities for examining orchards in nearly all parts 
of the State during the present year. As to importing trees from States where the dis- 
ease is found, I have no personal experience, but many of the Michigan orchardists 
claim that the presence of the disease in certain orchards there is undoubtedly due to 
the importation of trees from New Jersey ; and in my own purchases 1 am always careful 
to procure trees from iminfested localities. 

The disease is readily carried by means of cions, but whether it can be spread by the 
pits is still an open question. About four years ago the United States Department of 
Agriculture attempted to test the matter, and so far no disease has appeared on the trees 
grown from seed from infested trees. 
Yours very truly, 

S. M. TRACY, 

Director. 



University of Minnesota Experiment Station,) 
St. Anthony Park, Minnesota, August 15, 1891. f 

Mr. B. M. Lelong, Secretary, San Francisco, Cal.: 

Deae Sie: The climate of Minnesota is not of such a character that peaches can be 
grown at all. Of course there are a number of nurserymen in our State that sell peach 
trees, but such trees are not grown in their nurseries, but are imj^orted from regions 
more favorable to the peach. 

In regard to your other question, 1 think that it is not wise to import your peaches 

from any region in wliich the Yellows is known to occur. Peach trees grown from pits 

from fruit grown in a region where the Yellows is prevailing are also very apt to carry 

the disease to other places. Of course the same would hold good in regard to the cions. 

Respectfully yours, 

OTTO LUGGER, 
Botanist and Entomologist. 



The Connecticut Ageicultueal Expeeimekt Station,) 
New Haven, Conn., August 18, 1891. j 
B. M. Lelong, Esq.: 

Dear Sir: I regret that I am not well posted in regard to the peach interests of this 
State. 1 know, from "common hearsay" only, that Connecticut was, many years ago, 
within memory of elderly people, an abundanl producer of line peaches; that the " Yel- 
lows" is reputed to havecompletely destroyed all the peach orchards, and that for some 
twenty or thirty years peaches, as a crop, were unknown here. Latterly, within ten 
years br so, a few peach orchards have been planted and have produced well. The "Yel- 
lows" is, 1 understand, still to be encountered in some localities, but the extent of the 
damage it occasions I have no means of estimating, nor do I know whether it is general 
or confined to the Connecticut River Valley, where, I believe, it is not uncommon. 

1 send by this mail copies of your letter to several parties having extensive experience 
in peach growing, with a request to answer your cj[uestions, and you will doubtless hear 
from them in due time. 

Very truly yours, 

S. W. JOHNSON, 

Director. 



I'he Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, ) 
New Haven, Conn., September 16, 1891. f 

B. ^I. Lklong, Secretary State Board of Horticulture, San Francisco, Cal.: 

Dear Sir: I inclose answers to the questions in yours of August seventh. They are 
from two of our most experienced and trustworthy fruit growers. 
Vorv trulv vours, 

S. W. JOHNSON, 

Director. 



— 1 

New Britain, Conn., August 24, 1891 



Connecticut Valley Orchard_ Company, [ 



Prof. S. W. Johnson: 

Dear Friend: I was very glad to get your letter of August nineteenth. I have just 
returned from a week's absence, visiting the orchards of New York and Delaware, hence 
the delay in my reply. 

I know no part of Connecticut that is exempt from the Yellows on peach trees, nor any 
considerable orchard of six years old that cannot show clear specimens. Hale published 
a few days ago that he had no Yellows in two of his orchards, but 1 have just visited 
them and there are specimens well scattered through them. I judge any Connecticut 
orchard left to itself, as to Yellows, would be likelj'' to "go out " within five to ten years. 
It spreads very rapidly, often when neglected. 

As to safety in importing, that is a hard question. My own personal experience is 
that sound stock could be got from Connecticut if carefully watched and the first appear- 
ance of Yellows exterminated. But I would by no means make the experiment unless 
there was a large inducement to do so, because of the alertness required and the risk 
involved if once the watcher slept. 

Southern Maryland is much safer, I judge, and as good or better variety could be 
obtained. I think the Washington folks, having made some (but not very large) experi- 
ments, do not find that the Yellows is hereditary; but diseased cions would, of course, 
carry the disease with them, and it would be impossible in an infected orchard to always 
and certainly discriminate against diseased trees. Often Yellows seems to lie dormant 
in the tree for a considerable time before it shows itself. I believe I have answered all 
your questions, and think my answers to be essentially correct. 
Verv respectfully yours, 

JOHN B. SMITH. 



New Canaan, Conn., September 14, 1891. 
Prof. S. W. Johnson : 

My Dear Sir: Yours in relation to Peach Yellows in Connecticut is at hand. 

1. I doubt if there is any i)art of Connecticut where the peach trees are not affected 
more or less with what is called the "Yellows." It is a question, however, in my mind, 
whether the trouble is not more a result of the winter weather, or lack of proper food, 
than anything else. Our open winters, witli their freezing and thawing, and no snow 
on the ground, are especially hard on peach trees. 

2. The extent of damage I do not know, but would say that from some cause peach 
trees do not last over live or six years, and they will begin to show disease sometimes at 
two or three years of age. So destructive is the "Yellows" that people are greatly dis- 
couraged in setting peach trees. Trees are set, however, more or less every year, and 
many times good crops .secured. 

3. "We would advise to get trees that have not been propagated from seed infected with 
the disease, nor from buds taken from trees apparently exhausted or diseased. 

4. The universal opinion is that the disease may be transmitted to young trees by plant- 
ing first from unhealthy trees, and using buds taken from trees with disease in the sap, 
even if they appear to be quite healthy and making good growth. 

Yours respectfully, 

EDWIN HOYT. 



South Glastonbury, Conn., September 5, 1891. 

Mr. B. M. Lelong, Secretary State Board of Horticulture, San Francisco, Cal.: 

Dear Sir: Your favor of August sixth, addressed to Professor Woods of our State 
(Storrs) Experiment Station, has been referred to me for reply, and would have had 
more prompt attention except for my absence from home. 

As to the extent of the "Yellows" among peach trees in Connecticut, I have to say 
that some thirty or forty years ago this disease almost entirely killed out the trees in 
our State, and until we began planting here some fifteen years ago, there was not an 
acre of commercial orchard in the whole State. Our planting of some hundred acres or 
more in orchard, and by thorough culture and close attention to the trees growing 
healthy orchards and producing fine crops of fruit, has stimulated the planting of a 
large number of commercial orchards, especially in Hartford, Tolland, Middlesex, New 
Haven, and Fairfield Counties, so that to-day there is a large acreage of orchard through- 
out the State. 

These plantings have also stimulated the planting of a few trees in the home grounds 
on almost every farm. Many of these local trees have been produced from pits taken 
from peaches brought in here from infected districts of Maryland, Delaware, and New 
.Tersey, and as a result "Yellows" has once more made its appearance here, and to a 
greater extent this year than ever before, more particularly upon the grounds of amateurs, 
and in partially neglected commercial orchards. 

In reply to your question, whether it would be safe to import trees from infected local- 
ities, I slaould sav, most emphatically, "No!" If California is now free from the 



— 14 — 

"Yellows." you should use every precaution against its introduction, either by trees, 
buds, or pitsYrom infected districts, for I am satisfied that it is a disease that can be 
easily distributed in either of these ways. My judgment, gained by observation in 
nearly all peach-growing sections of the United States in the past few years, is that 
nearlv every peach district east of the Mississippi River and north of Mason & Dixon's 
line, is more or less affected by this disease, while the South and West are particularly 
free from it at this time, and I most certainly hope that you will be able to keep it out of 
the superb orchards of your State. 

The Michigan law, which compels the immediate destruction of infected trees — not only 
with the "Yellows," but also with the " Black-knot " on the plum— has worked most 
excellent results; and while the " Yellows " has not yet reached your State, it seems to 
me that you should not only guard against it by a strict Cjuarantine against all infected 
trees, but also by the passage of a law which will enable you to stamp it out promptly 
on its first appearance. In this way, and this way alone, can you hope to keep free from 
it, and retain your magnificent orchards. 
Very'respectfully, 

J. H. HALE. 



Purdue University Agricultural Experiment Station, ) 
Lafayette, Inil, August 15, 1891. f 

3Ir. B. M. Lelong, Secretary State Board of Horticulture, San Francisco, Cal.: 

Dear Sir: I do not know of any well authenticated cases of Peach Yellows in this 
State; at any rate it is not a prominent disease here. It would be safer to secure trees 
from regions not infected with the Yellows; but with caution, I see no reason why they 
might not be taken from districts thought to be free from the disease, although it might 
be within a comparatively short distance from the Yellows' district. 

There is undoubtedly a very considerable danger in using pits from trees infected with 
the disease, and also by taking cions from such trees. 
Very truly yours, 

J. C. AUTHUR, 
Botanist Experiment Station. 

Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station,) 
Fayetteville, Ark., August 27, 1891. j 

Mr. B. M. Lelong, Secretary State Board of Horticulture, San Francisco: 
Dear Sir: Yours of the sixth to Prof. E. H. Murfee, in regard to Peach Y^'ellows, handed 

to me to answer. In reply I would say, so far as my knowledge goes, and 1 can ascertain 

from reliable sources, the disease has never been in this State, unless in isolated cases 

where it was not recognized. 
Believe it to be dangerous to import from infected districts, but in localities where 

trees are perfectly free from the disease do not think there is necessarily any danger. 

Trees have been "brought here indiscriminately from the East, and it certainly has been 

given an opportunity to get here through that channel, but I don't know of any damage 

resulting therefrom^ in three States I have traveled over— Mississippi, Texas, and 

Arkansas. 
As to the pits, I know of nurserymen that have in years past brought their seed for 

stock from eastern markets apparently without damage. 
Yours trulv, 

J. F. McKAY, 

Horticulturist. 



University of Illinois, Champaign, III., August 28, 1891. 

Mr. B. M. Lelong, Secretary State Board of Horticulture, San Francisco, Cal.: 

Dear Sir: In reply to yonrs of August sixth, addressed to S. H. Peabody, I will say 
that the " Yellows"\)f peach trees is not known in Illinois. 

It is not safe to import trees from infected districts. This has been abundantly demon- 
strated. 

There appears to lie little danger of introducing Yellows from pits, but care here should 
also be taken. Tlie use of diseased buds or cions is lu'ccminently dangerous. 
Yours tndv, 

T. J. BURRILL. 



Mr. B. M. Lelong : 



— 15 — 

Ithaca, N. Y., August 29, 1891. 



The Cornell University, College of Agriculture, ) 



Dear Sir: Yours of the seventh, concerning Peach Yellows, is referred to me. Yel- 
lows has appeared in many parts of western New York in the peach belt along the lakes. 
I have seen a good deal of it in Niagara and Orleans Counties. All the large nurseries 
take particular pains to avoid the Yellows, and most of them are outside the infected 
districts. The disease is so easily recognized bj"^ those familiar with it, even in the 
nursery, that there would seem to be little danger of getting it from the reliable nurseries ; 
yet 1 should exercise great caution in getting trees from the East. So far as we know, 
Yellow^s pits never grow. 

Yours trulv, 

T. H, BAILEY, 
Professor of Horticulture. 



Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station,) 
Ames, Iowa, August 27, 1891. ( 

Mr. B. M. Lelong, Secretary State Board of Horticulture: 

Dear Sir: In mj'' opinion the Yellows can be introduced by pits or cions. Here, at 
Ames, peaches grown from pits received from Central Asia and Northwest China have 
never shown disease. 

Yours, 
1 J. L. BUDD, 

Horticulturist. 



Maryland Agricultural Experiment Station, ) 
College Park, Md., September 3, 1891. f 

B. M. Lelong, Esq., Secretary California State Board of Horticulture, San Francisco, Cal.: 

Dear Sir: Your favor of August seventh has been referred to me for answering by the 
Director of our station. 

Yellows has been reported in this State from nearly all of the northeastern counties, as 
far south as the southern part of Kent County. It is also prevalent in the western part 
of the State, in Washington and Frederick Co'unties, and no doubt is found in other parts 
of the State. 

I regard it unsafe to introduce pits from infected districts, as the Yellows is a disease 
or condition which affects the vitality of the seed. I do not regard the Yellows as a 
septic disease, but a condition of growth resulting from foreign causes. These causes we 
are at present at work upon, and have hopes that in the near future we may be able to 
throw light upon this mysterious disease. I believe we will be able, in the course of a 
few years, to cope with this disease. 

I would urge ttpon your people to give good culture, and, above all, give the trees an 
annual top pruning, cutting off a third to a half of the past season's growth. Also, keep 
a lookout at the collar of the tree for a small white worm, which 1 have found thus far 
to follow the disease. I washed the sores thoroughlj' when dug out, with kerosene 
emulsion, and believe it to be effectual in killing the worm. 

This is new information, and further investigation may add to our knowledge and sug- 
gest other treatment. 

Veiy trulv yours, 

THOS. L. BRUNK, 
Horticulturist Maryland Agricultural Experiment Station. 



Georgia Experiment Station,) 
Experiment, Ga., August 17, 1891. j 

3fr. B. M. Lelong, Secretary Board of Horticulture, San Francisco, Cal.: 

Dear Sir: In reply to yoursof the sixth instant, I beg to say that Dr. Erwin P. Smith, 
i)f the United States Department of Agriculture, has been engaged for some years in the 
investigation of the disease supposed to be Yellows, in this and other States, and is more 
familiar with its extent and character than I or any other citizen of the State. I beg to 
refer you to him for the opinion desired, as he is an expert, and as such has devoted con- 
siderable time to the investigation of the subject. He says that the disease now afl'ecting 
some orchards in Georgia is not identical with Yellows, though very similar and equally 
deadly, but not so general in its attacks. He calls or names it "Georgia Rosette." Budfs 
or grafts from an affected tree readilj' communicate this disease to trees in which they 
may be inserted. 

Very truh^, 

R. J. REDDING, 

Director. 



— 16 — 

Hatch Experiment Station, Horticultural Department,) 
Amherst, Mass., September 7, 1891. j" 
B. M. LelonCt, Esq.: 

My Dear Sir: After an experience of nearly thirty years I am free to confess that I 
don't know much about the "Yellows," though trees are dying about us on every hand, 
and new trees are being planted in places where trees are said to die of the "Yellows." 

1 find wherever a tree has been injured or weakened from any cause, by borers, by 
overbearing, by want of plant food, by too much plant, causing a late growth that is 
injured in the winter, by splitting of the trunk by frosts, etc., there sets in a kind of 
fermentation that results in the sickly, wirj- shoots, the premature ripening and high 
colored fruit, indicating the " Yellows," but I have never seen a case where some such 
injury lias not preceded the so called Yellows. There may be a specific microbe in this 
work! and there probably is, but no one has thus far discovered it. We have no fear of 
the Yellows here. With our extremes of temperature we do not expect our trees to 
escape the above mentioned causes of dying, and we do not have trees averaging more 
than ten years of age before they die, but under favorable conditions and with the best 
possible care, I am sure we can make them average fifteen or even twenty years. 

1 would obtain a moderately vigorous growth ))efore the trees come into bearing, and 
then when the crop is assured— that is, fully set — would feed the trees sufficiently to 
carry out that crop, and make a moderate and healthy tree besides, and no more. 

1 feel sure that wherever the peach grows, if there are such causes of dying present, 
there will be that i)eculiar condition uf growth and decay as are found everywhere in 
the East, and do not fear more Aveakness of the progeny from the seeds from one section 
than from another, though the law will hold good that: "Like will produce like." 
Very truly yours, 

S. T. MAY^NARD. 



Agricultural Experiment Station of the University of Tennessee, |^ 

Knoxville, September 9, 1891. j 
Mr. B. jNI. Lelong, San Francisco, Cal.: 

Dear Sir: Absence from office since the middle of July has prevented an earlier reply 
to your favor of August seventh, relative to Peach Yellows. 

I have seen no evidence of the "Yellows " in this State. 1 would say that if the stock 
you receive is healthy, although coming from States in which the disease is known to 
exist, you need have no fears respecting it; but buds or cions from diseased trees will 
infect those upon which they are inserted. The disease may be introduced into your 
State through such a source, and you cannot be too particular in your selection of stock. 
Regretting this delay, I remain. 
Yours verv truly, 

F. LAMSON SCRIBNER, 

Director. 

RECOMMENDATIONS. 

The fruit growers are urged to cooperate with the various County 
Boards of Horticultural Commissioners throughout the State in the 
enforcement of the laws to prevent the spread of injurious insect pests 
and diseases, and prevent the sale of infected nursery stock. Notwith- 
standing the fact that most of the fruit-growing counties have a Board 
of Horticultural Commissioners, and while they are always on the alert, 
it is to the interest of every fruit grower to assist them in the discharge 
of their duties, and not hamper them by throwing " stumbling blocks" 
in their Avay, as has been done on various occasions, and mainly on 
account of some personal difficulty. In cases of this nature, it is to the 
interest of every one to leave such grievances at home, and join hands 
and assist in the good work for the benefit of all. In counties where 
no County Boards of Horticultural Commissioners have been appointed, 
the fruit growers should at once petition for their establishment. The 
law makes it mandatory upon the Board of Supervisors to appoint upon 
presentation of the proper petition.* All County Boards of Horticult- 
ural Commissioners are urged to follow the example of the San Ber- 



' The law is mandatoiy, and the 
I ^^oision of Hon. .Tohn G. Presslev, o>.,,v-i^>ji v. 
llogers vs. Board of Supervisors, ijune li), 1889 



^ , i:e Supervisors must appoint upon proper petition." — 

[Decision of Hon. .Tohn G. Pressley, Su]ierior Court, Sonoma County, m the case of E. A. 



— 17 — 

nardino County Board, by having posters printed and posted throughout 
their respective districts. The following are two of the posters circu- 
lated by the San Bernardino County Board, viz.: 

WARNING! 

Peach and Prune Trees! 

It is of the utmost importance to the future of fruit growing in California, that every 
purchaser of peach trees, or prune or other trees grown on peach roots, should know that the 
stock is grown on this coast /rov/i home-grown pits. It is a well known fact that that most 
insidious and deadly foe to peach growing, the "Yellows," and for wdiich no remedy 
has been found, is rapidly spreading over the peach-growing region of the East, causing 
the ruin and abandonment of all orchards wherejt once obtains a foothold; and if trees 
are imported from those sections we will most assuredly get the disease with them, and, 
quite likely, other dangerous pests. Fruit growers, ascertain positively w^here the trees 
are grown before making contracts. 

H. B. MUSCOTT, 
N. H. CLAFLIN, 
W. E. COLLINS, 
Horticultural Commissioners of San Bernardino County. 



FRUIT GROWERS, ATTENTION! 

We urge upon you the utmost care in making future contracts for trees. Make the 
acceptance of the stock, and paj^ment for same, conditioned upon the fact that such 
stock shall be delivered to you absolutely free from any scale or other insect pests. 

We take this method to put you on your guard, as we have been credibly informed 
that certain dealers are getting up their contracts so as to bind the purchaser to pay all 
expenses of inspection and disinfection. 

H. B. MUSCOTT, 
N. H. CLAFLIN, 
W. E. COLLINS, 
Horticultural Commissioners of San Bernardino County. 



ORDINANCE RECOMMENDED FOR ADOPTION 

BY THE DIFFERENT COUNTIES TO PREVENT THE BRINGING OF TREES INTO 

THE COUNTY. 

Each county has the right to pass such ordinances as are lawful, to 
prevent the bringing of trees, vines, shrubs, flowers, fruits, vegetables, 
etc., into the county, and to prevent the sale, gift, or distribution of the 
same until the same shall have been properly disinfected to the satis- 
faction of the Commissioners or local Inspector. The County Board of 
Horticultural Commissioners of San Bernardino County caused the 
passage, by the Board of Supervisors, of the following ordinance, and 
other counties are urged to do likewise, viz.: 

ORDINANCE No. 30. 

Concerning Horticultural Interests. 

The Board of Supervisors of the County of Sati Bernardino, State of California, do ordain as 
follows : 

Section 1. No person or persons, either as owner, agent, servant, or employ^, shall bring 
or cause to be brought into San Bernardino Countj', California, from any district, county, 
or State, any trees, vines, shrubs, cions, cuttings, grafts, fruit plants, flowers, or vege- 
tables, without giving notice within twenty-four hours after their arrival at their desti- 
nation to a member of the County Board of Horticultural Commissioners of said countj', 
or to the local Inspector of the district into which they are brought, nor plant, sell, 
expose for sale, give away, or otherwise distribute any of the articles mentioned in this 

2-Y 



— 18 — 

section, or cause the same to be done, until they shall first have been inspected as herein- 
after provided and disinfected to the satisfaction of the County Board of Horticultural 
Commissioners of said San Bernardino County or the local Inspector thereof acting under 
the direction of said County Board of Horticultural Commissioners. " 

Sec. 2. If upon a careful inspection by a Horticultural Commissioner or local Inspector 
of said county of San Bernardino any of the articles enumerated in section one (I) of 
this ordinance shall be found to be infested with any live scale or insect pests detrimental 
or injurious to fruit trees or the product thereof, "or to plant life, such infested articles 
shall be removed from the limits of the county vrithin forty-eight hours, at the expense 
of the owner, agent, or shipper, or destroyed. The owner, agent, or shipper shall have 
the right to elect as to the removal of said infested articles from the county or to have 
the same destroyed by order and under the direction of the County Board of Horticult- 
ural Commissioners. 

Sec 3. Whenever the said Board deem it necessary for the safety of the horticultural 
interests of the county, they may hold in quarantine, for subsequent inspection or dis- 
infection, or both, any of the articles mentioned in section one (1) of this ordinance, for 
fourteen days or less, as in their judgment is necessary. 

Sec. 4. The County Board of Horticultural Comniissioners are hereby authorized to 
require any or all articles as enumerated in section one (1) of this ordinance brought into 
San Bernardino County to be disinfected, even though a careful inspection by a Horti- 
cultitral Commissioner or local Inspector should show siich articles to be apparently free 
from scale or insect pests. 

Sec. 5. Every owner or owners, person or persons, in charge or possession of any 
orchard, nursery, or other premises in San Bernardino County on which are growing 
any trees, vines, shrubs, jjlants, vegetables, or flowers, infested with red or cottony- 
cushion scale, or the eggs, larv£e, or pupte thereof, shall, when required by the County 
Board of Horticultural Commissioners, as in their discretion may seem necessary, cut 
back and disinfect or fumigate said infested trees, vines, shrubs, plants, flowers, or veg- 
etables, as well as all other articles as above mentioned that may be in the vicinity of 
such infested articles, and on refusal or neglect to comply at once therewith, to dig out 
and destroy the same as said Board may direct. 

Sec 6. Any person or persons who shall ship, or bring or cause to be shipped or brought 
into San Bernardino County, any trees", vines, cions, cuttings, grafts, shrubs, plants, 
flowers, or vegetables, shall have placed upon or securely attached to each bos, package, 
or separate parcel of such trees, vines, cions, cuttings, grafts, shrubs, plants, flowers, or 
vegetables, a distinct mark or label showing the name of the owner, agent, or shipper, 
and tlie locality where produced. 

Sec 7. Any person violating any of the provisions of this ordinance shall be guilty 
of a misdemea'nor, and on conviction thereof shall be punished by imprisonment in the 
county jail not less than ten days and not more than one hundred days, or by a flne not 
less than $10 nor more than ipiOO, or by both such fine and imprisonment. A judgment 
that the defendant pay a flne may also direct that he be imprisoned until the fine be 
satisfied, specifying the extent of imprisonment, which must not exceed one day for 
every dollar of the fine. 

Sec 8. All ordinances or parts of ordinances in conflict with the provisions of this 
ordinance are hereby repealed. 

Sec 9. This ordinance shall take efl'ect and be in force on and after the twenty-fifth 
day of January, 1891. 



CALIFORNIA HORTICULTURAL LAWS IN FORCE, 1891. 

The following is the amended Act passed at the last session of the 

Legislature of this State: 

AN ACT 

To protect and promote the horticultural interests of the State, approved March I4, ISSl; 
amended by an Act approved March 19, 1SS9, and by an Act approved March 31, 1S91. 

Section 1. Whenever a petition is presented to the Board of Supervisors of any 
county, and signed by twenty-five or more persons who are resident freeholders and 
pos.sessors of an orchard, or both, stating that certain or all orchards or nurseries, or 
trees of any variety, are infected with scale insects of any kind, injurious to fruit, fruit 
trees, and vines, codlin motli, or other insects that are destructive to trees, and praying 
tliat a Commission be appointed by tliem, whose duty it shall be to supervise their 
destruction as lierein ])rovided, the Board of Supervisors shall, within twenty days 
liieroafter, select three Commissioners for the county, to be known as a Cotinty Board "of 
Horticultural C'omnnssioncrs. The Board of Su]5er"visors may fill any vacancy that may 
occur in said Commission liy death, resignation, or otherwise^ and a]ipoint one Commis- 
sioner each year, one month, or thereabouts, previous to the expiration of the term of 
tiflice of any member of said Commission. Die said Commissioners shall serve for a 
period of tlirec years from the date of tlieir appointment, except the Commissioners first 
appointed, one of whom shall serve for one year, and one of whom shall serve for two 



— 19 — 

years, and one of whom shall serve for three years, from the date of appointment. The 
Commissioners first appointed sliall themselves decide, by lot or otherwise, who shall 
serve for one year, who shall serve for two years, and who shall serve for three years, 
and shall notifv the Board of Supervisors of the result of their choice. — [Statutes of 
CaL, 1889, p. 413. 

Sec. 2. It shall be the duty of the County Board of Horticultural Commissioners in 
each county, whenever it shall deem it necessary, to cause an inspection to be made of 
any orchards, or nursery, or trees, plants, vegetables, vines, or fruits, or any fruit-pack- 
ing house, store-room, sales-room, or any other place or articles in their jurisdiction, and 
if found infested with scale insects, of codlin moth, or other pests injurious to fruit, 
plants, vegetables, trees, or vines, or with their eggs or larvie, they shall notify the owner 
or owners, or j^erson or persons in charge or in possession of the said places, or orchards, 
or nurseries, or trees, or plants, vegetables, vines, or fruit, or articles, as aforesaid, that 
the same are infested with said insects or other pests, or anj- of them, or their eggs or 
larvte, and they shall require such person or persons to eradicate or destroy the said 
insects or other pests, or their eggs or larvEe, within a certain time to be specified. Said 
notices may be served upon the person or persons, or either of them, owning, or having 
charge, or having possession of such infested place, or orchard, or nursery, or trees, 
plants, vegetables, vines, or fruit, or articles, as aforesaid, by any Commissioner, or by 
any person deputed by the said Commissioners for that purpose,' or they may be served 
in the same manner as a summons in a civil action. Any and all such places, or orchards, 
or nurseries, or trees, plants, shrubs, vegetables, vines^ fruit, or articles thus infested, 
are hereby adjudged and declared to be a public nuisance. And whenever any such 
nuisance shall exist at any place within tlieir jurisdiction, or on the property of 
any non-resident, or on any property the owner or owners of which cannot be found 
by the County Board of Horticultural Commissioners, after diligent search, within 
the county, or on the property of any owner or owners upon which notice afore- 
said has been served, and who shall refuse or neglect to abate the same within the time 
specified, it shall be the duty of the County Board of Horticultural Commissioners to 
cause said nuisance to be at once abated, by eradicating or destroying said insects or 
other pests, or their eggs or larva?. The expense thereof shall be a county charge, and 
the Board of Supervisors shall allow and pay tlie same out of the General" Fund of the 
county. Any and all sum or sums so placed shall be and become a lien on the property 
and premises from which said nuisance has been removed or abated in pursuance of this 
Act, and may be recovered by an action against such property and premises ; which action 
to foreclose all such liens sfiall be brought in the proper Court by the District Attorney 
of the county, in the name and for the benefit of the county making such payment or 
payments, and when the property is sold, enough of the proceeds shall be paicl into the 
County Treasury of such county to satisty the lien and costs; and the overplus, if any 
there be, shall be paid to the owner of the' property, if he be known, and if not, into the 
Court for his use when ascertained. The County fioard of Horticultural Commissioners 
is hereb}'' vested with power to cause any and all such nuisances to be at once abated in 
a summary manner. — [Statutes of CaL, 1891, pp. 268-9. 

Sec. 3. Said County Boards of Horticultural Commissioners shall have power to 
divide the county into districts, and to appoint a local Inspector for each of said districts. 
The State Board of Horticulture, or the Quarantine Officer of said Board, shall issue 
commissions as Quarantine Guardians to the members of said County Boards of Horti- 
cultural Commissioners, and to the local Inspectors thereof. The said Quarantine 
Guardians, local Inspectors, or members of said County Boards of Horticultural Com- 
missioners, shall have full authority to enter into any orchard, nui'sery, or place or places 
where trees or plants are kept and offered for sale or otherwise, or any house, store-room, 
sales-room, depot, or any other such place in their jurisdiction, to inspect the same, or 
any part thereof. — [Statutes of CaL, 1889, p. 414. 

Sec. 4. It shall be the dutj' of said County Board of Horticultural Commissioners to 
keep a record of their officiardoings, and to make a report to the State Board of Horti- 
culture, on or before the first day of October of each year, of the condition of the fruit 
interests of their several districts; what is being done to eradicate insect pests; also, as 
to disinfecting, and as to quarantine against insect pests and diseases, and as to carrying 
out of all laws relative to the great'est good of the fruit interest. Said Board shall 
publish said reports in bulletin form, or may incorporate so much of the same in their 
annual reports as may be of general interest. — [Statutes of CaL, 1889, p. 414. 

Sec. 5. Each meinber of the County Board of Horticultural Commissioners, and 
each local Inspector, shall be paid, for each day actually engaged in the performance of 
his duties under this Act, jDayable out of the County Treasury of his county, such com- 
pensation as shall be determined by resolution of the Board of Supervisors of the county, 
before entering into the discharge of his or their duties. — [Statutes of CaL, 1889, p. 415. 

Sec. 6. The said County Board of Horticultural Commissioners shall have power to 
remove anv local Inspector wdio shall fail to perform the duties of his office. — [Statutes 
of CaL, 1889, p. 415. 

Sec. 7. If any member of the County Board of Horticultural Commissioners shall 
fail to perform the duties of his. ofiice, as required by this Act, he may be removed from 
office by the Board of Supervisors, and the vacancy thus formed shall be filled by 
appointment by the Board of Supervisors. — [Statutes of CaL, 1889, p. 415. 

Sec 8. It shall be the duty of the County Board of Horticultural Commissioners to 
keep a record of their official doings, and to make a monthly report to the Board of 
Supervisors; and the Board of Supervisors may withhold warrant for salary of said 



— 20 — 

members and inspectors thereof until such time as said report is made.— [Statutes of 
Cal.. 1889, p. 415. 

Sec. 9. AU Acts or parts of Acts in conflict witii the provisions of this Act are herebv 
repealed.— [Statutes of Cal., 1889, p. 415. 

Sec. 10. [Repealed.] 

Sec. 11. This Act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage..— [Stat- 
utes of Cal., 1889, p. 415. 

Sec 12. When a petition is presented to the Board of Supervisors of any county, as 
required by section one of said Act,* tlie said Board of Supervisors may appoint a Com- 
mission, to consist of any number less than three members, at a compensation each of 
not less than four dollars, and if but one member, five dollars, for each day actually 
engaged in the performance of his duties under this Act; and all the provisions prescrib- 
ing tlie duties of and conferring powers upon the County Board of Horticultural Com- 
missioners contained in said Act shall apply to the Commission appointed under this 
section.— [Statutes of Cal., 1891, p. 260. 

* * * It shall be the duty of the Inspector of Fruit Pests, or the Quarantine Guard- 
ian, to inspect fruit packages, and all trees and plants, cuttings, grafts, and cions, 
known or believed to be infested by any insect or insects, or the germs thereof, or their 
eggs, larv£e, or pupaj, injurious to fruit or fruit trees, or infested with any disease liable 
to spread contagion, imported or brougiit into this State from any foreign country, or 
from any of the United States or Territories; and if, upon inspection, such fruit or fruit 
packages are found to be infested or infected, it shall be a misdemeanor to offer the 
same for sale, gift, distribution, or transportation, unless they shall be first disinfected. 
[Sec. 2, Statutes of Cal., 1885, p. 40. 



YELLOWS LAW OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN. 

The following is the new law concerning Yellows, enacted by the 
Legislature of the State of Michigan: 

AN ACT 

To prevent the spread of the yellows, a contagious disease, among peach, almond, apricot, and 
nectarine trees, and to provide measures for the eradication of the same, and to repeal Act 
thirty-two of the session laws of eighteen hundred and seventy-nine. 

[Approved June 23, 1891.] 

Section 1. The people of the State of Michigan enact, Tiiat it shall be unlawful for 
any person to keep any peach, almond, apricot, ]ilum, prune, cherry, or nectarine tree 
infected with the contagious disease known as Yellows or Black-knot, or to otler for 
sale or shipment, or to sell or ship to others, any of the fruit thereof; that both tree and 
fruit so infected shall be subject to destruction as a public nuisance, as hereinafter pro- 
vided, and no damage shall be awarded in any Court in the State for entering upon 
premises and destroying such diseased trees, or parts of trees and fruit, if done in accord- 
ance with the provisions of this Act; and it shall be the duty of every person, as soon as 
he becomes aware of the existence of such disease in any tree, parts of trees, or fruit 
owned by him, to forthwith destroy or cause said fruit or trees to be destroyed. 

Sec 2. in any township in this State in which such contagious disease exists, or in 
which there is good reason to think it exists, or danger mav be justly apprehended of its 
introduction, as such information becomes known to the township Board, or any member 
thereof, it shall be the duty of said Board to appoint forthwitli three competent 
freeholders of said township as Commissioners, who shall hold office during the pleasure 
of said Board, and sucli order of appointment and of revocation shall be entered at 
large upon the township records. 

Sec. 3. It shall be the duty of said Commissioners, witliin ten days after appointment 
as aforesaid, to file their acceptance of the same with the Clerk of said township, and 
said Clerk shall be ex officio Clerk of said Board of Commissioners, and he shall keep a 
correct record of tiie proceedings of said Board in a liook to be provided for the pttrpose, 
and shall file and preserve all papers pertaining to the dtities and actions of said Com- 
missioners, or either of them, which shall be a i)art of the records of said township. 

Sec. 4. It shall be the duty of the Commissioners, or any one of them, upon or with- 
out complaint, whenever it comes to their notice that either of the diseases known as 
Yellows or Black-knot exists, or is supposed to exist, within the limits of their townships, 
to proceed without delay to examine tlie tree or fruit supposed to be infected, and if the 

* Section one provides for the apiiointment of a Commission of three members, and 
section five provides that the compensation be fixed by the Board of Supervisors. This 
later amendment gives the option to counties to api)oint a Commission of one or two 
members, and fixes their compensation. 



— 21 — 

disease is found to exist, a distinguishing mark shall be placed upon the trees, and the 
owner notified personally, or by a written notice left at his usual place of residence, or 
if the owner be a non-resident, by leaving the notice with the person m charge of the trees 
or fruit, or the person in whose possession said trees or fruit maj' be. The notice shall 
contain a simple statement of the facts as found to exist, with an order to effectually 
uproot and destroy, by fire, or as the Commissioner shall order, the trees so marked anci 
designated, or such parts thereof, within ten days (Sundays excepted) from tlie date of tlie 
service of the notice; and in case of trees known as nursery stock, or fruit so infected, 
such notice shall require the person in whose possession or control it is found, to imme- 
diately destroy the same, or cause it to be done. Said notice and order to be signed by the 
full Board of Commissioners. 

Sec. 5. Whenever any person shall refuse or neglect to comply with the order to 
remove and destroy the tree or parts of trees so designated and marked by the Commis- 
sioners as afoi'esaid, it shall become tlie dutj- of the Commissioners to cause said tree or 
parts of trees to be removed and destroyed forthwith, employing all necessary aid for 
that purpose. The expenses for such removal and destruction of trees or parts of trees 
to be a charge against the township, and for the purpose of said removal and destruction 
the said Commissioners, tiieir agents and workmen, shall have the right and power to 
enter upon anj' and all premises witliin their township. 

Sec 6. If any o^yner neglects to uproot and destroy, or cause to be removed and 
destroyed as aforesaid, sucli diseased tree, or parts of trees or fruit, after such examina- 
tion and notification, and within the time hereinbefore specified, such person shall be 
deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and punished by a fine not exceeding one hundred dol- 
lars, or by imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding three months, or both, in the 
discretion of the Court; and any Justice of the Peace of the township where such trees 
may be, or where such nursery stock or fruit is sold, shipped, disposed of, or delivered as 
aforesaid, shall have jurisdiction thereof. The words " parts of trees," wherever used in 
this Act, shall refer to Black-knot only, and not to trees affected with Yellows. 

Sec. 7. The Commissioners shall be allowed for services, under this Act, two dollars 
for each full day, and one dollar for each half day, and their other cliarges and disburse- 
ments hereunder, to be audited, as well as any other charges and disbursements under 
this Act, by the township Board, all of which costs, charges, expenses, and disburse- 
ments may be recovered by the township from the owner of said cliseased fruit, or from 
the owner of the premises on which said diseased trees stood, in an action of assumpsit. 

Sec. 8. All of Act number one hundred and seventy-four of the public Acts of 
eighteen hundred and eighty-one, be and tlie same is hereby repealed. 

This Act is ordered to take immediate cflect. 



YELLOWS LAW OF NEW YORK. 

The Yellows law of New York, passed at the session of the State Legis- 
lature of 1887, is as follows: 

AN ACT 

To prevent the spread of the disease in peach trees knouni as the Yelloivs. 

[Passed May 19, 1S87.] 

The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do eyiact as follows: 

Section 1. It shall be unlawful for any one to knowingly or willfully keep any peach, 
almond, apricot, or nectarine tree infected with the contagious disease known as the 
Yellows, or to offer for sale or shipment, or to sell or ship to others, any of the fruit 
thereof; that both tree and fruit so infected shall be subject to destruction as public 
nuisances, as hereinafter i^rovided, and no damages shall be awarded in any Court in this 
State for entering upon premises and destroying such diseased trees and fruit, if done in 
accordance with the provisions of this Act; and it shall be the duty of every person, as 
soon as he becomes aware of the existence of such disease in any tree or fruit owned by 
him, to forthwith destroy or cause the same to be destroyed. 

Sec 2. In any town of this State in which such contagious disease exists, or in which 
there is good reason to believe it exists, or danger may be justly apprehended of its 
introduction, as soon as such information becomes known to the Supervisor thereof, it 
shall be the duty of said Supervisor to appoint forthwith three competent freeholders of 
said town as Commissioners, who shall hold oflfice during the pleasure of said Supervisor, 
and such order of appointment and of revocation shall be entered at large upon the town 
records. 

Sec 3. It shall be the duty of said Commissioners, within ten days after appointment 
as aforesaid, to file their acceptance of the same with the Clerk of said town, and said 
Clerk shall be ex officio Clerk of said Board of Commissioners, and he shall keep a cor- 
rect record of the proceedings of said Board in a book to be provided for the purjaose, and 



— 2^2 — 

sliall tile and preserve all papers pertaining to the duties and actions of said Commis- 
sioners, or either of them, which shall be a part of the records of said town. 

Sec. 4. It shall be the duty of the Commissioners, or any one of them, upon or with- 
out complaint, whenever it comes to their notice that the disease known as Yellows 
exists or is supposed to exist within the limits of their town, to proceed without delay 
to examine the trees or fruit supposed to be infected, and if the disease is found to exist, 
a distinguishing mark shall be placed upon the diseased trees, and the owner notified 
personally or by a written notice left at his usual place of residence, or, if the owner be 
a non-resident, by leaving the notice with the person in charge of the trees or fruit, or 
the person in whose i)ossession said trees or fruit may be. The notice shall contain a 
simple statement of the facts as found to exist, with an order to effectually remove and 
destroy, by fire or otherwise, the trees so marked and designated, within ten days (Sun- 
days excepted) from the date of the service of the notice; and in case of fruit so infected 
such notice shall require the person in whose possession or control it is found to imme- 
diately destroy the same or cause it to be done. Said notice and order to be signed by 
the full Board of Commissioners. 

Sec. 5. Whenever any person shall refuse or neglect to comply with the order to 
remove and destroy the trees marked by the Commissioners, as aforesaid, it shall become 
the duty of the Commissioners to cause said trees to be removed and destroyed forth- 
with, employing all necessary aid for that purpose, the expense of such removal and 
destruction of trees to be a charge against the town ; and for the purpose of said removal 
and destruction the said Commissioners, their agents and workmen, shall have the right 
and power to enter upon any and all premises within their town. 

Sec. 6. If any owner neglects to remove and destroy, or cause to be reiTioved and 
destroyed, as aforesaid, such diseased trees and fruit after such examination and notifica- 
tion, and within the time hereinbefore specified, such person shall be deemed guilty of a 
misdemeanor, and punished by a fine not exceeding one hundred dollars, or by imprison- 
ment in the county jail not exceeding three months, or both, in the discretion of the 
Court; and any Justice of the Peace of the town where such fruit is sold, shipped, or 
disposed of, as aforesaid, shall have jurisdiction thereof, and all such fines so collected 
shall be turned over to the Supervisor of the town, to be placed by him in the contingent 
fund of said town. 

Sec. 7. The Commissioners shall be allowed for services, under this Act, two dollars 
for each full day and one dollar for each half day, and other reasonable charges and dis- 
bursements hereunder, to be audited, as well as any other charges and disbursements 
under this Act, by the Board of Town Auditors, to be paid to said Commissioners as 
other town accounts are paid. Such fees and all reasonable charges and disbursements 
of said Commissioners, in each case, may be recovered by the town, in the name of the 
Supervisor, from the owner of the diseased fruit or trees on account of which such fees, 
charges, and disbursements became payable or were incurred. 

Sec. 8. This Act shall take effect im'mediately. 



B^S^fe-- 









'^'^^^^l^ 






w m 




E 



MAP SHOWINf: THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE PEACH AND OF PEACH "YELLOWS" IN THE UNITED STATES. 




ffnWH4tf^^''"l>'0IPAL PEACH t 
l|— II— II— II DlsmcTS KNON 

AfFECTED BV " f E 
,+ + ++ OlSTHlCTS KNOWN 

BV "Rosette 

EXTLNT NOT KNOWN, (VELlOWSJ, 
'Vu\\\ EXTENT OF YELLOWS"aT THE TIME DR 

Smith's Report was made in i888 



(Compilo,! Iiy IS. M. Leiong, witli the assistance of Prof. B. T. Galloway and.Ur. Erwin F. Sniitli.) 



APPENDIX. 



REPORT BY ALEXANDER CRAW, 

State Quarantine Officer, 

OF THE 

INSPECTION AND DISINFECTION OF A CARGO OF ORANGE 
TREES FROM TAHITI. 



REPORT BY ALEXANDER CRAW, 

STATE QUARANTINE OFFICER. 



San Francisco, August 31, 1891. 

Mr. B, M. Lelong, Secretary State Board of Horticulture, 220 Sutter 
Street, San Francisco, Cat.: 

Dear Sir: I herewith submit my report to you of the inspection and 
disinfection of three hundred and twenty-five thousand Tahiti orange 
trees that arrived at the port of San Pedro, Los Angeles County, June 
15, 1891. 

Respectfully, 

ALEXANDER CRAW, 
State Quarantine Officer. 

Early in the spring I learned that a schooner was chartered to bring 
a cargo of young orange trees from Tahiti. The vessel was due early in 
May, but owing to calms and unfavorable winds they did not arrive 
until the date above mentioned. On August sixteenth I received a tele- 
gram from George J. Mitchell, Secretary of the Los Angeles County Horti- 
cultural Commission, informing me that the schooner ''Lena Sweasy" 
had arrived. I left for Los Angeles that same afternoon, and the fol- 
lowing day, after conferring with the County Horticultural Board, pro- 
ceeded to San Pedro. 

The trees were packed in open boxes or crates, with soil about the 
roots. A few of the cases appeared to have been heated, as the trees were 
covered with a dry fungus. 

As the soil in some boxes was too high about the stems, it was con- 
sidered advisable to remove the trees to shallow trenches twenty-five 
feet long and five feet wide. Large oiled canvas sheets sufficient to cover 
a trench were used; these were spread over the trees, and the ends and 
edges covered with soil to prevent the gas escaping. To generate the 
gas two earthenware vessels were used, one at each end of the trench; 
into each were placed three ounces of fused cyanide of potassium and 
six fluid ounces of water, and when everything was ready six fluid 
ounces of sulphuric acid were added to each, and the tent immediately 
closed down and allowed to remain forty minutes. This was double 
the amount of chemicals necessary, but Mr. W. E. Collins, of Ontario, 
the gentleman superintending the work for the owners (Messrs. Meserve 
& Sons, of Pomona), thought it advisable to use a charge sufficiently 
strong to insure the death of every insect upon the trees. The work 
was done on the night of June twenty-fourth. Messrs. A. F. Kerchival, 
John Burr of the Los Angeles County Board of Horticultural Commis- 
sioners, and myself were present in the interest of the county and State. 

The owners' questioned our right to hold the trees, as nearly three 
hundred thousand were contracted for in San Bernardino County, and 
they claimed that they were still in transit, as they had not reached 



— 26 — 

their destination. Hints of laersonal suits and suits for damages 
against the State and county Avere freely indulged in; also, that the 
trees could be moved immediately after gasing; that the law had then 
been complied with. But this was not according to our idea of disin- 
fection; so before the gasing I sent the following telegram to Attorney- 
General Hart at Sacramento: 

Los Angeles, June 24, 1891. 

Cargo of orange trees at San Pedro from Tahiti, badly infested with scale insects, 
several of which not found in this State. Trees quarantined and ordered them disin- 
fected, which is being done. Owners claim right to remove trees immediately after, which 
I am not willing to concede. Have 1 legal power to hold trees say fourteen'days or until 
I can determine if the scales are all destroyed. This is very urgent ; wire answer immedi- 
ately. 

ALEXANDER CRAW, 

Quarantine Officer. 

The following prompt reply was received at San Pedro, signed by 
W. H. Layson, First Deputy Attorney-General: 

It is my opinion that you keep infected trees until you can determine whether or not 
the insects are dead. More the reason when you discover new species. 

Two weeks after the first fumigation. Prof. D. W. Coquillett, Assistant 
United States Entomologist, Horticultural Commissioners Kerchival, 
Burr, and Mitchell, and myself visited San Pedro and found live speci- 
mens of the large "mining scale" {Chionaspis biclavis* Comstock). I 
consider this one of the most destructive scales that has come under our 
notice, from the gnarled and warty appearance of the wood where the 
insects locate and also from its remarkable habit of burrowing under the 
very thin outer epidermis of the tree, thus to a certain extent protecting 
the scale from the deadily hydrocyanic acid gas. The scale is light- 
colored, but as the thin layer over it retains all the characteristic mark- 
ings of the bark surrounding the insect, it is very difficult to detect. 

As the fumigation was not a success, a second notice was served upon 
owners, on July eighth, to again treat the trees. Five days after the 
second fumigation, an examination revealed the fact that some were 
still alive, and a third gasing was made by the owners in hopes of 
having the trees in such a condition that they would pass at the next 
inspection. On July seventeenth, we again found live " mining scales," 
some of them having living young under them, that tried to make their 
escape when the scale was removed. After such a showing, the respon- 
sibility of liberating such trees, even after a very thorough and careful 
examination, was greater than we cared to assume. So I stated the 
facts to the Attorney-General, and asked his advice about commencing 
condemnation proceedings to have the trees declared a nuisance and 
destroyed. On the night of July nineteenth a triple amount of chem- 
icals was used. On the twenty-first, the date set for the official exami- 
nation, in company with Commissioners Kerchival and Burr, we made 
another inspection, and still found live scales and eggs. Mr. Kerchival 
also found an undetermined borer upon the stem (under the ground) 
of one of the trees. This is a new pest to California, and at a subse- 
quent examination I secured more specimens and will carefully breed 
them to the winged state in order to ascertain the familj^ to which they 
belong. This borer has been claimed by the importers to be a native 

* This species will be fully illustrated and described in a bulletin now in course of prepa- 
ration.— [B. M. L. 



— 27 — 

species, and that the trees became infested after their arrival. This 
undoubtedly is not correct, otherwise they would have been found 
attacking the orange trees in the county. 

The largest specimens found measured about one half of an inch in 
length by a little over one eighth of an inch in diameter. It is a cylin- 
drical grub, and resembles the peach-root borer, but differs in having 
the last segment of the body the same as the others — translucent. It 
has a brown head and black mandibles, with a few short hairs scattered 
over the body and head. 

On July twentieth I received a letter from First Deputy Attorney- 
General W. H. Lay son, wherein he says: 

Go ahead and bring an action to declare the infected trees a nuisance under the Act of 
1889. The sooner a test case is made the better. I believe the State Board of Horticult- 
ure can destroy trees, unplanted, if necessary to kill infecting scales. 

This matter was fully discussed by County Commissioners Kerchival, 
Burr, Mitchell, and myself on July twenty-second, and after reviewing 
every point we were satisfied that the importers had been given every 
opportunity, and had put forth their best energies to destroy every scale, 
and had failed, after fumigating the trees four times — three times with a 
double dose, and once with a triple amount of chemicals producing the 
the most deadly of gases. I then sent on that day the following telegram 
to Attorney-General Hart at Sacramento: 

Instruct District Attorney, Los Angeles, to sue in name of people to condemn Tahiti 
trees at San Pedro as nuisance. 

The same afternoon the subjoined answer was received, dated at San 
Francisco: 

Alexander Ceavv, Los Angeles: 

District Attorney of Los Angeles County, James McLachlan, is hereby authorized and 
directed to bring suit in name of people to condemn as nuisance Tahiti trees. 

W. H. H. HART. 

Before action was taken, the importers stated that they had been 
supplied with a lower grade of cyanide of potassium, through the mis- 
understanding of the druggist. But the fact remains that they used 
a quantity more than sufficient to compensate for the deficiency in 
strength, or, in other words, they used two and three parts of a 30 per 
cent cyanide of potassium, instead of one part of a 60 per cent grade; 
and as an indication that this gas was effective upon other species, I 
have only to state that but once did we find live specimens or eggs of 
the purple scale. However, when this matter was brought to our atten- 
tion, we decided to postpone action until the importers had another 
opportunity to gas with 60 per cent cyanide. 

After they had oiled and repaired their canvas, a double amount of 
this strong cyanide was used, with the result that the young shoots 
were injured. On the expiration of the fourteen days granted, we made 
another inspection, and after looking through three half-boxes of trees 
and finding tree borers in each, we then examined the large " mining 
scales," and, in the presence of their foreman, found live and healthy 
specimens, which I placed under the microscope, and were examined by 
him, also by Mr. H. Meserve and others, and acknowledged to be alive. 
The following day we examined other boxes, and finding more living 



— 28 — 

"mining scales," Mr. Kerchival telegraphed the District Attorney to 
commence proceedings, and left on the forenoon train to attend to the 
matter. 

Mr. Mitchell was then in Los Angeles and learned of the telegram, 
and, as a member of the County Board, swore to the complaint. Owing 
to a mistake in the copy served upon the defendants his name appeared 
as having been present at the inspection. Through this mistake he was 
arrested on comj)laint of defendants for perjury, but was subsequently 
released. 

The District Attorney detailed his first deputy, Judge Waldo M. York, 
to take charge of the case, and he conducted it for the people in a man- 
ner satisfactory to the horticulturists of the State and with fairness to 
the defendants. 

On August twenty-first, in company with Commissioner Kerchival, we 
made another inspection and found live "mining scales." Also, upon 
trees in a box car we found live, young and old, " mealy bugs " [Dactylo- 
pius citri, Comstock). This insect was reported to me by Mr. Meserve, Sr., 
as very troublesome to coffee trees upon the island of Tahiti. I have 
letters in my possession from an extensive lemon grower in the province 
of Salerno, Italy, that the same insect (specimens of which he sent me) 
is destroying the lemon orchards in his section. On August twenty- 
second the injunction restraining Meserve & Sons from moving the trees 
came up for hearing before Judge Shaw, in Department 5 of the Superior 
Court, and, after the testimony was all given, arguments were set for 
Monday, the twenty-fourth. Dr. Dunn, of Pomona, in his testimony for 
the defense, stated that borers had been found in orange trees at the M. 
Baldridge grove at Covina, and also at Mr. Northcraft's and Mr. Woody's 
orchards in Pomona, and that they had destroyed a number of trees. I 
was inclined to believe that the doctor was mistaken as to the real cause 
of the death of the trees, and determined to investigate the matter. 

So, on the twenty-fourth instant, Commissioner Burr and myself 
visited Covina, and there we met Mr. Layman, Mr. Baldridge's foreman, 
who kindly accompanied us to the portion of the grove where trees had 
died, which it was said were killed by borers. Upon examination of the 
adjacent trees, we were satisfied that the trees died from gum disease. 
We found a few beetles that Mr. Layman said were the same as those 
to which he called Dr. Dunn's attention, which proved to belong to the 
family of Tenebrionidx, and are not injurious. He then showed us the 
dead trees on the woodpile, and in them we had unmistakable evidence 
that the trees died from gum disease. The following day Commissioners 
Kerchival, Burr, and myself visited Pomona, and at Mr. Northcraft's 
place saw the young man that examined the trees in the spring, and from 
his description believe that they were wire Avorms he found, and not 
borers. The trees are very thrifty, and we failed to find any evidence of 
their work; but several trees died last spring, presumably from borers. 
Upon the other places mentioned we found a few trees afiected with 
gum disease (mal-di-goma), but no evidence of borers. 

After the testimony had been submitted to the Court, and argued by 
both sides. Judge Shaw rendered his decision to the effect that the trees 
must remain in quarantine at San Pedro until the owners can prove 
that all insects upon them are dead. I am fully convinced from his 
remarks on the bench that he is not disposed to take any risks, or that 



• — 29 — 

the experience of the past with the red and white scales should be 
repeated. 

From the location of the trees at San Pedro, I am satisfied there is 
no danger of infection from the scale pests. The only cause for alarm 
would be the development of the borers to the winged form, for when 
this takes place the removal of the trees would not be necessary to 
spread this pest. 

The following is a list of the scales found upon the shipment: 

Mytilaspis citricola, "purple scale." 

Lecanium hesperidum, " soft brown scale." 

Aspidiotus rapax, " greedy scale." 

Aspidiotus sp. like " ficus," a small circular black scale. 

Aspidiotus lemoni, flat circular scale like the red. 

Parlatoria, a species of " chaff scale." 

Dactylopius citri, a species of mealy bug. 

Chio7iaspis hiclavis, "mining scale." 

Also a tree borer probably an jEgeria, and the first ever known to 
attack citrus trees on this coast. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



015 793 452 1 



